Decomposing the intra-annual variability of flushing characteristics in a tidal bay along the North Sea

Flushing timescales in estuaries and coastal bays largely shape the distribution of dissolved and particulate matter and therefore have important environmental implications. Here we investigate the spatiotemporal variability of turnover times in a semi-enclosed tidal bay and examine the potential underlying causes. The basin considered here is the Dutch coastal bay Oosterschelde (Eastern Scheldt in English) on the east coast of the North Sea....